Hi, I've been researching around the clock for the past two days on what to do. My mom has not been a good Betta owner, I have been giving her gentle recommendations for proper care and she has ignored most of it. Because of this, her fish has been slowly deteriorating. His fins have been clamped and deteriorating for many months, probably 5 months now. She blamed this on a fake plant she had. She took it out, but fins continued to look worse. She got a filtered 5 gallon tank, (due to my constant pleading to get rid of the small vase). I visited him daily for one week in August to medicate with BettaFix and instructed her to do a water change after the treatment, which I hope she did. She says water changes are "too much hassle". Even after the treatment his fins did not change. It looks like his fins are totally shredded now. She has no knowledge of tank cycling. This Betta was kept in a small vase, with no heater (65-69 room temp), and no regular water changes. This fish has never known what it's like to feel normal/happy/even remotely decent. Without waiting for it to cycle, she got 3 tetras and a snail. She did not QT them, and dumped them in, including the pet store aquarium water. All the teras were sucked up into the filter and died. Without no QT, her tank now is overrun with Ich. The beta is literally hanging on by a thread. I told her that I saw a white spot on him probably 2 or 3 weeks ago from today. She finally put him back into his old bowl for QT and started API super Ick Cure two days ago. She STILL had not bought a heater for him, I instructed her to do so for months. I finally couldn't stand it anymore and went there this morning and took the fish. I went and got an air pump, and new QT tank, and a heater. I acclimated him by adding 10% new water conditioned with Prime every 20-30 minutes for about 2 hours. I then filled up the new QT half way with new conditioned Prime water, added new dose of Super Ick Cure medication (1 mL), then added the fish and the other 50% of water from his acclimation tank. I also put in a floating wood house for him to hide in. I know his QT tank is way too small, Petco was the nearest place and only had small QT tanks, this is best I could do as quick as I could. I am worried. He has not eaten in a couple days. Prior to not eating, he hid for weeks, would not swim around, only come out sometimes to eat. I'm very worried it's too late to save him. His color is awful, he has gotten very dark (used to be a purple/blue), he looks rough and fuzzy. One of the photos I uploaded shows the white spots fairly well. Sorry they are not good photos, he is in floating house. He does not move whatsoever, tried to feed him after moving him into new QT and the food just hit his head without flinching. His fins move to keep him in place and he has labored breathing, but not like he is suffocating. He stays at the surface, with his mouth just at the surface, with rhythmic open-mouth breathing. What else should I do? My mom said she gave him 2 doses of the Super Ich. I'm worried his immune system is too busted to handle the medication. My mom said she did a 25% water change this morning, and after that she was sitting at the kitchen table nearby and he jumped out of his bowl, landing on the counter! I have never seen this fish active, never once have I seen it swim fast enough to even do that. I told her he was probably trying to commit suicide. Please help, I really want to see him live to give him a good home. I have other Beta's that are the happiest little guys ever, who I love very much. I tried uploading photos, never posted here before, don't know if I did it right. I entered the google drive shareable link.

Hi Natalie, welcome to the community, sad to hear it was because of this little guy's situation, but glad you are here.

I would add Epsom salts. It doesn't seem to ever cause more problem for the fish, but does often help them.

This is cut and paste from a recent post but still applies.

I don't know what size the QT is but the stronger amount here is 2 tablespoons for each gallon of water, and you can calculate what you would need.

Excerpt
"What I would do for my own fish...

Normal large pwc.

I would also add Epsom salts magnesium sulfate, like for soaking a sprained ankle - available at the drug store or super market. No additives no oils, etc.

For the 2.5 G I would take 5 rounded tablespoons and mix it into an adequate amount like a cup, of really hot water til dissolved. Then add it to appx. double amount of cold water or ice cubes until tank temp, and add dechlorinator.

Remove the same amount of water as what you have mixed up and then over the course of the next day, add it to the tank.

This is a treatment amount of epsom salt.

initially add in 1/4 of the mixture, in two parts.
say half /part of the 1/4 amount then about a half hour later, the other half.
This just eases the water change for the fish.

In 8-12 hours... add another 2 part 1/4 amount of ES over a half to an hour.

Continuing until it is empty.

You can test for any water parameter issues during this time. I would keep up this amount of ES for 7-14 days at this increased level.

You can take more time later to make a concentrate of amount of water for amount of tablespoons of dissolved ES so it would be easy to dose it in for each pwc. So the amount is per each .5-1G pwc. As a fixed concentrate amount. Hopefully it will be easy for you to figure that out. I just keep it in a water bottle marked with a Sharpie.

After the 2 weeks if he is feeling good and acting good, I would do the normal pwc and decrease the concentrate added to equal 1 Tablespoon per gallon. Try that for a week or 2 if he seems good, then just do normal pwc and over time the excess ES will decrease and be eliminated."

I have had good success with this treating Betta. One fish had been so ill that when I reduced out the ES at the end of the treatment he would get ill again and he never ended up being 100% but lived a good life for another year after, and I just kept the 1 tablespoon per gallon in his water because when I didn't he would be acting ill again. He needed continued basically perfect water.

Other fish were just fine after treatment and didn't need it continued.

If you are feeling like he is on the verge of death you can just add the initial ES concentrate in a little bit every 15 min to half hour when you are awake (as in do not stay up all night to dose it- get some sleep), to get it in more quickly.

I have actually added it in small amounts when I felt that the fish was near death and all within a 2 -3 hour period, and did not seem to have an negative effect on the fish. The excerpt quoted initially would be a regular treatment with average urgency/unwell fish.

I may sound rude here but this is probably the best for the fish: steal the betta.

I know this is a little radical but it is probably best for the little one. Also: follow the steps from autumnsky.

The last thing that is beat for the betta is to give it something natural. Put some wood in the tank, but leave the middle open. Natural elements always seem to help with fish (I did the same for the school’s goldfish).